Despite a struggling economy, lower salaries and an increase in adjunct and contingent positions, a higher proportion of US scientists headed to academia than to any other sector in 2009, according to numbers from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Published on 3 December, Doctorate Recipients from US Universities: 2009 includes salary data for the first time in the annual report's 43-year history.

Even with universities offering much lower salaries than industry, half of all life-sciences PhD recipients who had secured jobs said that they were entering academic positions, according to the survey. This proportion, which has varied little since 1989, is a testament to the powerful lure of positions that enable self-directed research, say analysts. “Many scientists want the independence of working on their own research, rather than on what's handed to them,” says Mark Fiegener, an NSF programme manager based in Arlington, Virginia. The NSF received survey responses from 420 US universities and 49,562 PhD recipients.

The industrial sector proffered the highest median early-career salaries — up to US$95,000 in some instances — in most disciplines in the physical and life sciences. The median for an academic post in biological sciences was $45,000, compared with $85,000 for a commercial position in the same subfield, including biochemistry, marine biology and zoology. Other fields had similar disparities.

Academia dominated life-sciences employment in 2009, but industry was stronger for physical scientists, despite changes to job numbers since 2008 that run counter to five-year trends and could be due to pharmaceutical layoffs (see 'Division of labour'). Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attributes the five-year trend in part to hiring increases at drug-making and chemical firms. He says that mergers and layoffs will continue to slow the field down.

For a high resolution image see the PDF Credit: SOURCE: NSF

Industry's constraints will put pressure on academia, which is already pinched by the recession, says Marc Bousquet, an associate professor at Santa Clara University in California who is on the executive council of the American Association of University Professors. Scientists in all fields will struggle to find academic posts — and few of those available will be tenure-track, he says.

The report also uncovers significant pay differences between early-career men and women with PhDs. Men earned up to $10,000 more than women in nearly all fields except astronomy, where they earned $30,000 more. Joan Herbers, president of the Association for Women in Science in Alexandria, Virginia, says women need help learning to negotiate salaries and raises. “When you start out at a lower salary,” she says, “that dogs you for the rest of your career.”

Postdocs earned $37,500 to $45,000, which, given their average schedule, Freeman estimates, works out to $12.50 to $15 an hour. “Some of the best and brightest people in our country earn a pittance,” says Freeman.